As I get the digest version, I have not had one since last Friday so don't know if there are any posts about convention. The Arachne get together was a great success, held in the restaurant of the hotel, but in a quiet raised area away from most other guests. Sue Babbs has put a photo on the Flicker photo stream for me. I am sorry I did not lighten it up a little more. Annie who takes photos for the IOLI CD may have a better photo than the one taken with my phone. We got a chance to introduce ourselves and the raffle had so many prizes that some folks got to take home two prizes. My convention was really nice. I took Mechlin with Ulrike Voelker which was enjoyable even though my pillow was the one to take a tumble in the class. We were in a bedroom (less beds) but with some furniture still there and I think it was 11 or 12 of us, all with large pillows. Mine was the 24" builder foam type with square corners that got in the way of people passing where I was originally sat. I turned myself around, side on to another lacemaker. She accidentally placed a hand on the corner of my pillow and over it went. Pins everywhere and a tangle of bobbins, (probably 80 pairs by then) thankfully no broken threads.  As it was time to organize the Arachne lunch, I left.  When I came back all the pins were back in my container on the pillow and some of the bobbins sorted. Ulrike took over sorting them when she returned from lunch and as my pattern had some lace worked from a different direction, I got on with that. On my comment form for IOLI I wrote that I had never laughed so much. Obviously by Friday I had forgotten the incident. My other class on Wednesday was designing Binche, a taster. Kumiko helped me get my project half done so I am well on the way to my first Binche design. On a personal note, I took first prize in the contest for my grape design, which cannot be shown until published in the Bulletin. Liz Ligetti from Australia got second for her tatted tussie mussy flowers and Janet Peers won third for her needlelace copy of The Sower by Van Goch. She also won Popular Vote and I voted for her piece. In my opinion it should have won First. It was a fun convention and the hotel and staff were great and the meals provided were good, as were all the favors we received. The banquet gift from the host group was a hand thrown pin dish. I love mine as it was the colors used in my bedroom and lounge.  I also sat at the banquet table where another surprise was a pair of Binche bobbins donated by the Lace Museum.  I came home a happy lacemaker and now have a ton of work to do on my lace. Janice Blair Murrieta, CA, jblace.com
- To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachne.modera...@gmail.com. Photo site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lacemaker/sets/
